These drawings are preparatory studies for the reliefs on the façade of the theater at Béziers, commissioned in 1842. David d'Angers was awarded honorary citizenship of the town of Béziers in 1838 after his successful completion of the statue of Riquet, architect of the Languedoc canal. Thus, when in 1842, it was decided to build a new theater in Béziers, David d'Angers was consulted. He proposed Isabelle, with whom he had worked in Rouen, as architect, and agreed to design the façade decorations and auditorium ceiling himself.
Isabelle's façade consisted of two levels of arcades below a frieze of four reliefs separated by medallions. The iconography chosen for the decoration consisted of a twin contrasts between tragedy and comedy and French and Greek plays.
The present drawings relate to these four relief scenes. They probably belong to an early stage in the design process, as no indication is made of the medallions separating the reliefs as in the finished work, David d'Angers, exhib. cat., Angers, Musée d'Angers, 1985, pp. 104-5, illustrated